Saturday 28, 2018 @ OMNI

Description:This panel discussion will help the listener better understand the racial and ethnic dimensions of Kurdish-centered revolutionary struggles in Northern Syria/Rojava and surrounding regions. Also, it will help the listener understand the intersections of race, power, and violence in the region as well as the revolution's position in global structures of White Supremacy and imperialism. Content will be geared toward implications for praxis and what that means for so solidarity work in the Bay Area and beyond.

12-1:30PM Creating Communities of Support to Keep Sex Workers Safe

Presenters: TBA

Description: Sex work in its many components (i.e. stripping, cuddling, escort, BDSM, sugar baby, porn, etc.) is often non-existent (absent or invisibilized) from our communities’ discussions on social justice and empowerment. Often times, sex work is contrived as an individual effort, without recognizing the many ways our communities support or impede sex workers on a daily basis. At a heightened time of overt white supremacy, sexism, and attacks on sex work, queer/trans/GNC sex workers of color are targets of violence who lack institutionalized protection. Whether you identify as a sex worker, are close to someone in the sex industry, or just have questions, come join Future Imaginaries, where sex workers will discuss their experiences coming into sex work, what self-care can look like in the sex economy, what supportive communities look like, rethinking/destigmatizing sex work, breaking the silence on violence and impunity, and lastly, what you can do to support sex worker agency.

2-3:30PM When the Government goes Fishing: Resisting grand juries, FBI intimidation, and keeping our radical communities safe in times of political repression

Presenters: Members of the Bay Area Committee to Resist Grand Juries, Anti Repression Committee, and Richard Brown, former Black Panther and grand jury resister.

Description: Grand juries are tools used by the US government to conduct fishing expeditions and repress radical political organizations and movements. Repression like this can be overwhelming and disabling, but it can be fought back through collective and coordinated resistance and support. Grand juries have been used to attack the Black Liberation movement, Puerto Rican Independence, Indigenous movements, animal rights activists, and anarchists, among others. Join us as we share stories and insights from some of these movements - from the 70s to today - that resisted grand juries. Through these inspiring examples of noncooperation, coupled with broad based solidarity campaigns to support resistance, we’ll illustrate 1) what a grand jury is and how it works, 2) what critical lessons we can learn from past mistakes, and 3) some essential information and tips on keeping your community safe from the state and its malicious and underhanded tactics it uses against our movements.

Description: This workshop will focus on providing an in depth look at ILM's Community Led Self Defense model for building a community infrastructure equipped with the necessary tools and empowerment to operate as the line of defense against the mass incarceration and deportation of undocumented communities. While the workshop will touch on the 4 overarching components of the model (rapid response, community education, promotora leadership development and deportation defense campaigns), we'll dedicate the majority of our time to detailing the wide range of opportunities for allies to put their solidarity into action. Those opportunities will include accompaniment, rapid responder, etc.

Sunday 29, 2018 @ CIIS

Note: on Sunday, we will be having multiple sessions running at the same time, enjoy!

10-11:30AMAbolishing Discrimination Through Self-Directed Education

Presenters: Alexander Khost

Description: Self-Directed Education environments provide methods for cultivating liberated youth so that they may develop according to their own inclinations and self perceptions. These spaces act as safe havens for the healthy growth of all children and in particular those who define themselves as outside of cultural norms. It provides methods for cultivating confidence, raising awareness and respecting others starting at a young age. This presentation will briefly discuss the history of these communities that started with anarchistic educators who developed the Modern Schools starting in the late nineteenth century. We will then look at current Self-Directed Education environments, the present methods used, and how they can be applied in homes with children, schools, centers, and Temporary Autonomy Zones.

10-11:30AMWomen Against Imperialism: A Historical Look at WAI, anAnti-Imperialist, Anti-Racist, Anti-Zionist and Feminist Organizationwhich existed in the 1980s and 90s: The Lessons learned and the relevance for today.

Presenters: Judith Mirkinson Jennifer Beach Video: A short power-point with some concise graphic representations of the intersectionality of our multi-issue work and projects.

Description: WAI was an anti-imperialist women’s organization made up of straight and queer and mostly white women. We were very anti-zionist and anti racist, but also explicitly feminist. Our members were instrumental in starting the Dyke March, and radical Take Back the Night and International Women’s Day marches. We also started the Women to Women campaign, which did direct solidarity with the women’s organizations of Nicaragua and El Salvador. We also did anti-military and anti-police work, going to recruiting stations and mounting campaigns against women joining the police force. Along with Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Free Political Prisoners we initiated and put on Sparks Fly - events to support women political prisoners. Women will discuss what it was to organize anti-imperialists to be feminists and feminists to be anti-imperialists. What were the challenges about being a white organization of women who were anti-racist? What were the internal dynamics? How were decisions made? What was the reaction to an anti-zionist politic from the rest of the women’s movement ? As we see an emergence of a resistance movement that centers intersectionality, anti-racism and women’s leadership, the work of Women Against Imperialism and other radical groups can help shed a little light on our work going forward.​

10-11:30AMReimagining Ritual and Self Care for the Colonized/Ostracized

Presenters: Cassandra (also known by her traveling name, Daisy) is an Esoteric Nutritionist who's goal is to make healing accessible to under acknowledged, underprivileged and oppressed communities.

Description:In a world where internet, media and globalization are cutting the barriers between nations and peoples. Whererefugees of all colors and creeds are fleeing their homes from any number of violent, economic, natural and man-made disasters. Where more "races" are intermingling creating even more children of the diaspora and governments/corporations attempt to destroy connections to our indigenous communities and traditions. Where feelings of "not being enough" or "being too much" keep us perpetually in states of loneliness and disbelief in our immense inner power. A world where it’s hard to imagine how to build positive sustainable communities and movements for ourselves. How can we truly and realistically reclaim our time? It has to start with baby steps, we have to afford ourselves consistency. The people who hoard resources, weaponry and power do not want to see us connected, accepted and empowered because that threatens the slavery/prison industrial complexes that feed their privileges. The wealthy elite benefit greatly from our distractions and self destruction, so creating sustained practices of spiritual and physical self care are trulyrevolutionary acts .There are many healing tools available to us. Unfortunately many are often hidden in dogmatic practices or watered down and resold at a premium, often unattainable to the people who need them most. People who use their privilege to collect healing techniques without clear accountability towards the cultures they derive from are a serious issue that affects the livelihoods of many. And for the people (like myself) caught between diasporas, histories, bloodlines and skin tones, those who want healing for all but also realizing it has to start inside...

Description: TWC will examine some of the events from the past year through the lens of anti-racist tech industry worker organizing. We will discuss our approach to organizing, both within the tech companies we work at and across the industry, and the role that tech workers can play in ending white supremacy.

10-11:30AMThe Border is Everywhere updates from migrant solidarity work on the Arizona border

Presenters:Members of No More Deaths - No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization based in southern Arizona. We began in 2004 in the form of a coalition of community and faith groups, dedicated to stepping up efforts to stop the deaths of migrants in the desert and to achieving the enactment of a set of Faith-Based Principles for Immigration Reform. We later developed into an autonomous project.

Description: Update on border enforcement and resistance in southern Arizona; current context, migrant solidarity and broder communities' response to border militarization. The talk will be highlighting how law enforcement is changing + how resistance strategies are changing with it.

12-1:30PMNo Nazis! No KKK! No Fascist USA! - from the 1970s to today, John Brown Anti Klan Committee presents on fighting white supremacy

Presenters: Lisa Roth, Mickey Ellinger, and others TBD

Description: Trump is a white supremacy machine. He opens his mouth and racist filth spills out. Openly embraced by racists from the KKK to neo-nazis, to Identity Evropa, we need a broad-based movement that puts direct anti-racist action front and center. We propose a discussion about what we can learn from militant anti-racist formations from the 1970s to the present, and how that can help us confront and defeat today’s crop of violent racists and fascists, both state agents and fascist groups. Join a discussion led by members of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee (Lisa Roth, Mickey Ellinger, and others) and activist/writer James Tracy, author of “No Fascist USA: The John Brown Anti Klan Committee In The Reagan Years,” to be published in 2019 by City Lights.

Description: Why is the decriminalization of drug use mandatory when envisioning reparations for planetary colonialism and slavery? How does legalization of all drugs go hand in hand with all drug decriminalization?As we conspire to piece together bits of the past of our ancestors, it is undeniable how the controlled use of substances played a central role in cementing early colonial systems that continue to carry legacy today. The persecution of spiritual guides and healers, the dissemination of substances in labor fields to maximize exploitation, and the mythologized narratives constructed to associate populations with criminality were turning points in human civilization, yet are seldom discussed when deconstructing Western imperialism and the global military industrial complex. How can we envision retribution for these historical acts of cultural genocide to advocate for our own rights to curate spaces for accountability, healing, and conflict-transformation? How can we better frame discussions around psychedelics to fit into the larger decrim conversation? What is the current policy for psychedelics in the US and worldwide?

12-1:30PMThe Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Methods of Sustainability and Survival in Movement Work and The Intersections of Race and Economic Access

Presenters:Black Women’s Defense League

Description: In this workshop we will discuss the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC) its history and current effects on radical organizing, introduce alternative funding sources for decentralized organizing work and methods of sustainability. Inform people on the nuances of funding, the maintained economic disparity in black /POC VS white communities and how that impacts who has access to make change by unpacking how class and privilege inform what people are willing to fight for and who has a voice in mass movements. Also present ideas and solutions on how to revert these issues.

12-1:30PMThe History of Jewish Antifascism and Towards a Renewed Jewish Resistance from Within the Diaspora

Presenters:Teal and Wombat

Description: In 70 short years, the state of Israel has erased a 2,000 year history of Jewish resistance to oppression, fascism and genocide. This presentation seeks to chronicle a history of Jewish resistance dating back as far as the Sicarii (70 C.E) all the way through the end of WWII. Using this history, we will discuss what a renewed anti-racist Jewish antifasicm could look like, and specifically the ways in which the diaspora, not the state of Israel, benefits and furthers our goals of resistance to racism, anti-semitism, and fascism in today's era.

12-1:30PMDecolonizing Food Education - affecting the perceptions of self and health in black and brown youth

Presenters:Asia H.

Description: The session combines both research and practice for facilitating culturally relevant and meaningful food education for black and brown youth in communities like Oakland challenging the narrative that our communities and our bodies are inherently unhealthy.

2-3:30PMPalestine on the Forefront of College Campuses

Presenters:GUPS is the General Union of Palestine Students

Description:Our presentation will focus on the exception of Palestine in academia and the question of academic freedom. We will focus on the attacks on the GUPS and the resistance and resilience that grew from it at San Francisco State University over the past 5 years. We will also be discussing the shift in neoliberal narratives and agendas that aim to exceptionalize Palestine in the classroom and foster hostile right wing rhetoric.

Description:The "Holler Network" is a decentralized group of Appalachian organizers, artists, educators, farmers and healers working to resist the spread of white nationalism in Appalachia. With the rise of the Trump presidency, white supremacist groups such as the Traditionalist Worker's Party have attempted to gain ground in our region by exploiting poverty to foment racism, most notably at public rallies in Pikeville, KY and Charlottesville, VA. As a network, we are developing strategies to support rural organizing against white supremacy in all its forms, whether that be ICE raids or Neo Nazis marching in our streets, and build strong communities for a world where all people feel safe to live and thrive in the mountains and in rural America.

A comparison of Anti-Racist VS. Non-Racist media - How to spot it via main stream media imagery, and how the reinforcement of Non-Racist images in Hollywood perpetrates more racism, stereotypes and colorblindness.

How to produce independent films - [both narrative and documentary work] on a dime [seriously!] and why creating the work you want to see [with agency!] is valuable and how to do it from start to finish regardless of film production experience, financing, technique and stylization.

Film production covers - A commitment to non-exploitive storytelling in film Pre-production; research, script writing, locations, crew, kraft services, gear, contracts and scheduling. Production; transportation, shooting, time constraints and last minute changes. Post production; music, editing, credits and the final project.

Description: What is at stake for El Salvador's progressive social movements as the extreme right-wing's prominence surges in the country's most recent municipal elections? This session will center two feminist struggles in the crosshairs of the likely disastrous effects of the election's outcome: the fight against the absolute ban on abortion and the struggles of feminist labor union organizers. The presentation will include a short, work in progress documentary film by Los Angeles based Salvadoran activist, Xochilt Sanchez, and a presentation by other CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) organizers who have recently traveled to El Salvador on CISPES delegations.

2-3:30PMNorcal Antifa-Anarchist and 'Black Identity Extremists': Central California Fusion Center and the Collusion Between Far-Right and State Forces

Presenters:Tim J. Bay Area Researcher

Description:In recent weeks, Northern California has been rocked by news that local police openly worked with neo-Nazis associated with the Traditionalist Worker Party in the aftermath of the Sacramento antifascist protest at the State capitol in 2016. Also, it was revealed that the Sacramento based Fusion center is keep tight tabs on on local antifascists, 'anarchist extremists,' and 'black identity extremists.' Moreover, there is evidence that far-Right media holds a particular sway over the local intelligence community, as FOIAed reports are filled with Alt-Right memes (passed off as authentic antifa promotional materials) and there was even extensive talk about the possibility for an 'antifa civil war' on November 4th. With similar realities playing out in Charlottesville in the wake of Unite the Right, and in the coming together of the Justice Department and the far-Right to prosecute J20 defendants, the case study of what is coming out of the Central California Fusion Center deserves wide attention and scrutiny.

4-5:30PMFacing our Aires: A Multidisciplinary Healing Workshop

Presenters:Vreni Michelini-Castillo aka Chhoti Maa

Description:We will delve through the thirteen airs that affect the body, soul and spirit according to Mexican traditionalmedicine practitioner Estela Roman. This workshop will utilize oral tradition, drawing and creative writing to help folks identify theairs that are prevalent in their body and their family. This is a workshop for people interested in deepening their knowledge ofIndigenous medicine and its day to day use to dismantle internalized systems of oppression.

Description:Radical relief efforts from Puerto Rico to Houston As the world descends into a period of chaotic climate phenomena, it's increasingly clear that states are not capable of coming to the rescue when disaster hits. Time and time again, we see examples of self organized brigades of regular folks picking up the slack, as governments and NGOs fail to meet the needs of those affected by natural catastrophes. During this session a member of the sub.Media collective will screen "No Permission Needed: Mutual Aid in an era of Climate Catastrophe" and will relate stories of autonomous disaster relief efforts from his research and his personal experience in post hurricane Maria Puerto Rico.